Anglophone Conflict:

Foreign Donors Pledge to Assist Rebuild NW-SW

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaoundé

PM Dion Ngute discusses with partners on how to rebuild destroyed regions

Some international partners of Cameroon and foreign donors have express their determination to assist government in the reconstruction of the properties destroyed as a result of the ongoing crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions only if peace returns to the said parts of the country.

                The promises were made recently in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute at the Star Building with focus on seeing how these bodies could help Cameroon in the reconstruction process of the crisis-ravaged regions earlier declared by government as economically sinister zones. The PM’s meeting brought together representatives of about 24 of the 75 diplomatic missions, United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

                “The label of Cameroon being a peace-loving and stable country has been destroyed and Cameroonians from all walks of life, from all the four corners of this country, think that it is time for us to regain that status which we once held as a peaceful country, a country to which other people came for refuge” Dion Ngute told the officials adding that most citizens are opting for peace because they are tired of all the killings.

                Jean Luc Stalon, Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) told the PM that UN will only assist in the reconstruction plan once peace returns. The Charge d’Affaires at the French embassy in Yaounde, Philippe Larrieu, on his part said France is ready to contribute to the reconstruction plans. “We have 62 million Euros that can be devoted to the reconstruction of the Northwest and the Southwest regions, and it is up to the government of Cameroon to ask this amount for the reconstruction of these two regions” Larrieu said. 

                It is however unclear when the over three-year long crisis will come to an end. Recommendations of the Major National Dialogue convened to seek lasting solutions to the crisis are still to be implemented more than one month after the dialogue. Meantime, fighting between separatists and government troops are reported almost on a daily basis, though with less intensity than in the past.